Portrait
Beno Gutenberg

Beno Gutenberg

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Beno Gutenberg

Beno Gutenberg was born in Darmstadt, Germany, on 4 June 1889; he
studied geophysics, physics and mathematics in Darmstadt and later in
Göttingen, where he received his Dr.Phil. in 1911. In 1911/12, while working
at the Geophysical Institute of the University of Göttingen, he identified
the Earth's core and determined the core-mantle boundary of the Earth at a
depth of 2890 km from seismic data.

After his engagement with the Central Bureau of the International
Seismological Association in Strasbourg and with the soap factory of his
father in Darmstadt, Beno Gutenberg received his venia legendi and a
professorship at the University of Frankfurt in 1926. In 1929 he got an offer
from Robert Millikan for full professorship in seismology at the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena. In June, 1930, Beno Gutenberg accepted
this invitation and became director of the seismological laboratory in 1947.
During World War 2 Beno Gutenberg served as an adviser for the US Navy and,
in 1951, for UNESCO. He was also President of the Seismological Society of
America (1945-1947) and of the International Seismological Association
(1951-1954), which was re-named under his presidency to "International
Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's Interior (IASPEI)". In
1957, Beno Gutenberg handed the directorship of the seismological laboratory
over to Frank Press and, in 1959, he became a professor emeritus of the
California Institute of Technology. Beno Gutenberg died on 25 January 1960 in
Pasadena.

About EGU

EGU, the European Geosciences Union, is Europe’s premier geosciences union, dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the Earth, planetary, and space sciences for the benefit of humanity, worldwide. It was established in September 2002 as a merger of the European Geophysical Society (EGS) and the European Union of Geosciences (EUG), and has headquarters in Munich, Germany.